FOUNDATION & CREST
Beşiktaş
Gymnastics came before football.
How did a club begin, and how did its colours and crest tell its story?
- Founded
- 1903
- Place
- Serencebey, Beşiktaş, Istanbul
- Founding figures
- Mehmet Şamil, Hüseyin Bereket, Ahmet ve Mehmet Ali Fetgeri and their friends
01 / BEGINNINGS
The founding story
Beşiktaş began in 1903 among young men exercising around the Osman Pasha mansion in Serencebey. Mehmet Şamil and Hüseyin Bereket were part of a group practising gymnastics, wrestling, weightlifting and boxing. The word “Gymnastics” in the club’s name preserves that beginning.
Football developed later rather than beginning on the club’s foundation date. That distinction matters when looking at the early photographs: they document a shared sporting association, not simply a football squad.
Milestones in the story
- 1903Gymnastics club founded
- 1906Date on the first badge
- 1908End of the early six-pointed-star period
- TodayBJK, 1903 and black-and-white stripes
02 / IDENTITY
How the crest took shape
The club’s account traces the first badge idea to a French-school pin shown by Mehmet Şamil. The early badge bears 1906, Ottoman lettering and a six-pointed star. Its date is a badge milestone, not the club’s foundation year.
The account credits Mehmet Şamil with the idea but does not name the maker. The present crest carries BJK, 1903, black-and-white stripes and the crescent and star. The club’s own historical research also challenges the often-repeated story of an original red-and-white identity.
The changing shape of the crest
Historical designs and the current crest are shown to compare the club’s identity. Not every minor shirt-print difference represents a separate official design.